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Weaver a Pirate? Very Doubtful

Ken Rosenthal over at FoxSports seemingly made a desperate attempt in his column today to link Jeff Weaver to the Pirates, but everyone in Pirateland knows that will never happen if Pirates General Manager David Littlefield gets his way – or thinks things through.

Or so we all should believe.

It’s hardly a coincidence that Oliver Perez and Bobby Hill, both clients of high-end sports agent Scott Boras, were each traded by Littlefield for a can of cream corn just to run them out of town. Boras represents Weaver so that about wraps this post up anyway until you consider that Littlefield’s trade of Perez last year returned another Boras client, Xavier Nady. You have to wonder how long Nady will remain a Pirate, much less a starter?

Nor is it a coincidence that Littlefield didn’t pick up the contract of Jeromy Burnitz this year, traded Roberto Hernandez last July, or declined to offer a contract in 2006 to Rick White. Hernandez and White called the only two player’s only meetings in the last two years and Burnitz is, well, let’s just say he isn’t known to be the chummiest guy in the clubhouse. As one player on the Pirates 2006 roster so elegantly put it last year: "Bad collection of dudes, man."

3 — even more importantly, since Jim Tracy mentioned he really liked Pirates rookie starter Shane Youman, it only makes sense that Weaver or Chacon would start instead. That would allow Youman pine time to learn from the masters or be shipped to AAA to develop. Right? After all, compare the stats for all three pitchers. (Youman has few innings so small sample size alert).

What is really bothersome about the idea of signing Weaver is that he was designated for assignment last July by the Angels after giving up 12 home runs in 32 innings of work pitching at Angel Stadium, despite the fact that park suppresses home runs from left and right-hand batters by about 8%. And guess what, his home runs per nine innings dropped just 0.10 after being traded to the Cardinals last year while his walks issued per nine skyrocketed from 2.13 to 2.81.

How did the Cardinals get Weaver, you ask? They gave the Angels a 47th round draft pick from 2001 – Terry Evans, who had repeated high A-ball so much the team was considering retiring his uniform, and a few dollars.

If Dave Littlefield or Jim Tracy had any interest in Jeff Weaver for 2007, last July would have been the time to pick him up – not now at $8m per year over two.

Honestly, I think Rosenthal was reaching into his garbage pail once again for a story. Don’t get the idea I’m a Rosenthal hater – he typically posts some great stuff. Just lately his articles with the Pirates name attached have been less than believable.

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2 Comments

Love your blog, that’s why I gotta tell you it’s Terry Evans, not Adams. And no, he wasn’t a monster prospect, but he sure put up a monster year between A and AA. He could just be a late bloomer, Cardinal fans were hoping to give up less for Evans, though they aren’t complaining now after Weaver’s spendid October capped by his excellent game 5
COMMENT BY JAKE – thanks for the shout – I had the link right to his stats but I suppose I was thinking of Terry Adams in the Pirates farm system. Thanks for the kudos. I think Evans was rated as the 8th best prospect at BP too, there might be some hope.

Boras uses Rosenthal to create a false sense of urgency when only one team is bidding for his clients’ services. The article is planted (and carefully mentions that Boras’ will never mention specific teams that are interested – wink) to serve Weaver’s interests, not the readers.

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